Research reportThe course of anxiety and depression through pregnancy and the postpartum in a community sample
Section snippets
Sample and procedure
The study is based on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) a longitudinal, prospective study of women, their partners and an index child (Golding et al., 2001). The study included all pregnant women living in the geographical area of Avon, England who were to deliver their baby between 1 April 1991 and 31 December 1992. It was estimated that 85–90% of the eligible population took part. All data were collected via postal questionnaires.
Of the 13,617 ALSPAC mothers who
Attrition
We tested whether women who reported high levels of anxiety and/or depression in pregnancy were disproportionately likely to drop out of the study by 8 months postpartum. One-way ANOVAs for each of the 8 scores (4 depression assessments and 4 anxiety assessments) comparing the final sample of 8323 with those cases removed from the sample but with a valid figure for the relevant score showed differences of between 0.9 and 1.4 points for EPDS (on a 30-point scale) and between 0.4 and 0.8 points
Discussion
The aims of this study were to examine symptoms of depression and anxiety across the transition from pregnancy to the postpartum. The central findings were that, for both depression and anxiety, there was considerable stability in individual differences as well as a mean decrease in symptoms from pregnancy to postpartum. For anxiety, the drop in mean level amounted to approximately 0.4 of a standard deviation. Furthermore, only a minority of cases of either depression or anxiety were not
Acknowledgements
The ALSPAC study is part of the WHO initiated European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood. We are extremely grateful to all of the mothers who took part and to the midwives for their cooperation and help in recruitment. The whole ALSPAC study team comprises interviewers, computer technicians, laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers and managers who continue to make the study possible. ALSPAC has been funded by The Wellcome Trust, the Department of
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